Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Charles Hodge at one time was the greatest theologian of Princeton seminary. And in Princeton afternoons he would give what were referred to as popular talks on doctrine, and people would come from all over and hear the great Charles Hodge expound one point of Christian teaching after another. On one particular afternoon, he came to the subject of the Trinity, and he said, this we are to discuss today the revelation which God has made of himself in his inspired word as three persons. This we must do with bowed heads and reverent hearts, for the ground upon which we stand is holy. The object of the Trinity is transcendently sacred. It is immeasurably important as the foundation of all knowledge and faith. So said Charles Hodge.

From the word of God. We invite you to stay tuned for the next half hour as we bring you a message from the word of God, brought to us by the Reverend Ken Smith, minister of the Princeton Presbyterian Church in historic Princeton, New Jersey. Once again, here’s Ken Smith as he continues his message from the word of God.

We’re going to speak today on the subject of the Trinity. Do you realize that there was a time in the life of the living church of God in the Old Testament time that as a scribe would come to copy various words that would describe God, that depending upon the word that they were copying, if it were a particularly descriptive word, that scribe would put down his pen and he would reach for a special pen to write these special descriptive terms of the living God. And in the case where.

Where he would be asked to transcribe that most holy of all names of God as Jehovah, that the scribe would stand from his desk, he would go and bathe, he would return in new clothing, and then, as an act symbolically of the holiness of God, he would then transcribe the name Jehovah, part of the majesty. The awesomeness of God has been lost, and often we become so casual with the living God. But as we come today to talk about God and his Trinity, we must realize that God is everywhere. God is here. Here at this moment. He hears the words that will be describing him. And as it were, we speak today of the triune God. Face to face, hears all.

And so, as we approach the subject of the Trinity, we must approach it with great respect, realizing that this teaching has been foundational to the Christian church through these centuries. Not only is the topic of the Trinity basic to the Christian church, but did you realize that the Trinity is unique to the Christian faith. There is no other religion in the world that attempts to describe God as does the Christian faith, with a triune God. There have been many attempts by various people to explain God. There have been those who have a unitarian point of view. These are the people who simply believe God is one with no clarification as to his activity. And that one unitarian God is the complete description of that God. That is true of the Muslim religion believing in a unitarian God.

The Jewish religion, the unitarian church, all seek to explain God simply by the one idea of one God, with no further explanation of his internal operation or identity. On the other hand, you have some who have attempted to explain God in polytheism. Polytheism sees that there is not a single God, but there are many gods. And the religion of the Romans, and the Greeks was the typical presentation of the idea of polytheism. Now the Christian religion speaks about God, who is one, but at the same time three. The word Trinity comes from a Latin word, Trinitas. It simply means three in one. Now there are some people who say, well, I am not interested in the Trinity because you can’t find the word Trinity in the Bible. And that’s true, but neither can you find in the Bible the word foreign missions.

Neither can you find in the Bible the word substitutionary atonement that Jesus died in the place of sin, nor can you find in the Bible the word Sunday school. And simply because the word is not to be found is not enough of a reason for us to simply discard this and say, I’m not interested. Now we know that the Bible teaches that God is one. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter six, verse four, we hear this great declaration. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. That that is the basic understanding of the God whom we worship. He is one God. Now to understand the teaching of the Trinity, we really are required at this point not to wade in simple truths of the scripture, but really to dive deeply into God’s word.

And so I would invite you to come with me as we seek to dive deep into God’s word to understand how can it be that three is one? How is it that God is declared to us one hand as being one and on the other hand showing himself as. As father, son, and Holy Spirit? John Wesley, in understanding the difficulty of the subject of the Trinity, said this, bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God. Augustine, who was very interested and concerned about the teaching of the Trinity and spent many years trying to understand this teaching of the church. He was once walking along the ocean by the shore, and he was thinking very deeply on the subject of the Trinity.

And as he meditated, he saw a little boy with a shell. And the boy was going to the ocean, scooping up some water and then coming back to a hole that he had dug with the shell in the sand. And he would take that little bit of water from the shell and drop it in the hole in the sand. Augustine was interested in what the boy was doing. He said, what is it that you’re doing? He says, well, I’m trying to put the ocean in this hole. And Augustine, realizing what he was trying to do and trying to understand the immensity of the ocean, of the. The trinity of God, was like that boy. And he said, that is what I am trying to do. I see it now standing on the shores of time.

I am trying to get into this little finite mind, things which are infinite. And for 16 years, Augustine studied the question of the Trinity. He wrote a book which today is one of the classic works on the subject of the Trinity entitled the Trinity. And it still stands, as must reading for anyone who would want to understand the subject that we are looking at. First, we need to understand what the Trinity is not. Now, there are some who explain the Trinity as though it were an apple pie, that the way to understand God is, yes, he is one, but just like this apple pie, it’s divided into three sections. And so in this third, we have God the Father, and in this other third, we have God the Son, and in the remaining third, God the Holy Spirit. Well, that’s an interesting explanation.

The only problem is that we find, as we look at the scripture, that God the Father is completely God the Son is completely God, and God the Holy Spirit is completely God, meaning that if you were to take God as a whole and try to divide him into thirds, the scriptures say God is not one third the Father and one third the Son. Son and one third the Holy Spirit. Now, there’s another idea that has grown out of this thought. It’s simply a variation on theme, and that is the idea that God is one. But at a certain point, he changes his outfit. And so for a period of time, we have God the Father, in time, eternity, who fashioned the world as the creator. And then he saw a group of people, the Israelites, and he showed his love upon those Hebrew people.

But that God of the Old Testament, some think, was a harsh God, a judging God. And they say that when he was done with that costume, he then changed his outfit and came back on stage, this time dressed as the Son Jesus Christ. And he lived for 33 years, was executed on the cross and then risen from the dead. And then he changed his costume again and he returned as the Holy Spirit. Well, that’s an interesting idea. The only problem is that the Bible teaches that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have all existed co eternally, that there was no time whenever God has existed in all of eternity, that the Son did not exist, that the Holy Spirit did not exist. Well, then there are also a number of illustrations that people try to use to explain the Trinity.

There are some who say, well, the Trinity is like water that can be in three different stages. It can be a solid, a liquid or a gas. St. Patrick tried to use this explanation as he was working with the druids in Ireland, and held up a shamrock and he said, these three leaves of this shamrock represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Well, it’s a very interesting idea. The problem is that the Bible teaches that unlike water that can exist in three different stages, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all three at the same time. Water cannot be a solid, a liquid and a gas all at the same time. But the Trinity can be father, Son and Holy Spirit all at the same time.

Now, one of the reasons that the subject of the Trinity is so important is because of the rise of cults, not only in America, but around the world. One of the great studiers and researchers on cults is a man by the name of Walter Martin. Martin has written a book entitled the Kingdom of the Cults. In this book he has studied the writings of the cultists. He has found a very interesting truth. He says, it should be noted that hardly ever in the discussions of the cultists will they ever discuss the existence of personal sin or the substitutionary atonement of Christ as the sole means of salvation. The historic doctrine of the Trinity is seldom, if ever, considered without redefinition.

And so we find around the country young people joining this cult community, or that from churches, young people who were taught in Sunday school, many of them from evangelical churches, but they never understood the trinity of God. And so when the cultist comes and tells them about God as they would redefine him, many today are finding the appeal of the cultist very interesting and are finding themselves listed among the numbers of people in those communities. So there is a very practical reason for being concerned about the Trinity. Throughout the history of the church, the Trinity has been a focus of discussion. We find back in the fourth century, a man by the name of Arius began a controversy talking about the relationship of Jesus Christ as both man and God.

He concluded that Jesus Christ had to be created by God the Father, and if he were created, therefore, he must not be co eternal. Then we find in the fifth century, a man by the name of Nestorius taught that Jesus Christ was both God and man, but that the manhood of Jesus Christ was absorbed into the divine headship of Jesus Christ. We find that the early church met the heresies that were presented to it one after another. They came to the conclusion that when you speak about God, who is three in one, that you must speak of that unity as being truly perfect, as being perfectly executed, as being undivided, as being unmixed. Now, what does the Bible have to say on the subject of the Trinity? Well, first we would open our Bible to the very first verse of the scripture, Genesis one.

One listen to the Trinity. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Did you hear the Trinity? Let me underscore it in the beginning. Elohim, the Hebrew word for God, created the heavens and the earth. This is a very interesting word, Elohim, because in the singular to say God, you would simply use the word el e l. The plural form in Hebrew is adding im. And so what we have in the word Elohim is a plurality. A more correct reading would be, in the beginning, gods created the heaven and the earth. But there is a very good reason why they have not translated it this way, because it seems to lead to the heresy of separating into various compartments. So we find that from the beginning, a hint that the God who created describes himself in the plural.

We find that recorded in Genesis 126. God said, let us make man in our own image. And after the fall of man, in Genesis 322, we read, and the Lord God said, behold, man is become as one of us to know good from evil. Now, does the Old Testament teach anything about the Son? There’s a very interesting event in the life of Daniel who is under the control of King Nebuchadnezzar. It was Nebuchadnezzar who cast three of Daniel’s friends into a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and abed to go. We read in Daniel 325, Nebuchadnezzar speaking, did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? And they answered, and they said, you’re speaking the truth. King, look, he answered, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.

And the form of the fourth is like the son of God. What about the Holy Spirit? Is there any picture in the Old Testament of the Holy Spirit? Well, we find in Genesis one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And in Genesis one, two, we read the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. It’s Isaiah who declares, the Lord God and his spirit have sent me. Now, as we look at the Old Testament, we do find that it is a shadow of what is to come. BB Warfield from Princeton, another great theologian from that school, in looking at the shadow of the Trinity in the Old Testament, said this. It’s like a richly appointed living room or chamber, furnished with beautiful couches, chairs, draperies, magnificent rugs and paintings on the wall, yet totally without light.

In that period before the Old Testament, the only light was that little bit that filtered in from the starlet and the moon, hardly making anything visible at all. And then in the Old Testament it was as if a single candle had been lighted and one then began to make out some of the furnishings in the living room. But still obscurity covered most and darkness prevailed. Finally, we come to the New Testament and there is a brilliant chandelier, the light of Christ, it is turned on. We see that nothing is added. In the New Testament it was simply revealed what was already there in the old, because it was first of all necessary that the understanding of the unity of God be understood in a polytheistic world, and then that the trinity of God should be revealed to man.

And then when we come to the New Testament, we find that the teaching of the Trinity is inseparable from virtually every chapter that we read. We find, for example, in the birth of Jesus Christ. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as followed after his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. And at the baptism of Jesus Christ we read the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus says of himself in John, chapter ten, verse 30, I and my father are one.

And after Jesus presents the great commission, he underscores that commission by saying that the purpose of Christians is to go therefore, and to make disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You and I have the Bible, and we are encouraged to read it. But we also should realize that through these centuries there have been hundreds, thousands of people who have been studying God’s word, and they have put more man hours than you and I will ever put, probably on any one single issue in the history of our lives. There have been many who love Jesus Christ, who have written and thought, and confessions have been settled through the years.

We find a unanimous decision among the confessions of the Christian Church, whether you look at the oldest the apostles Creed, or you look at the Scots Confession, or the Heidelberg Confession or the Westminster Confession, whether you look at the Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the congregational Church, all unanimously, in the course of their history as churches declare that God is one and yet three, that God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the holy spirit.

Ken, this has been a deep and difficult discussion, and we appreciate the clarity with which you’ve presented the Holy Trinity. This is the title of today’s message, and if you’d like information on how you can secure a cassette copy of today’s broadcast, we invite you to write to Pastor Ken Smith at this address from the word of God, box 3003, Princeton, New Jersey 08540. If you’d prefer to telephone, the number is area code 60 992-110-2220 for all of you who write or call, we’d like to express our appreciation by sending you a copy of Doctor Aw Tozer’s classic book on prayer. Mention that when you call or write, please. We know many of you would like to express to Pastor Ken Smith and all the Princeton Presbyterian Church family your appreciation for these broadcasts. May I suggest you pay us a visit some Sunday?

We meet in the John Witherspoon Middle School on Walnut Lane near downtown Princeton, New Jersey. Sunday school’s at 930 and our morning worship service is at eleven. Let me suggest as well, you write or call this station and thank them for bringing you this program from the word of God. Time now to bid you goodbye. Thank you for listening and do pray for this ministry, won’t you? Until next week, Lord Willing. Same time and station. This is Joe Springer inviting you to meet with us around your radios once again as we come to you from the word of God.

Thank you for listening to affirm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you. And Doctor Smith looks forward to hearing from you.